May 12, 2017

President Won’t Deny He Has Recording System in White House

Jeff Malet/Newscom via ZUMA Press

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President Trump says James Comey “better hope that there are no ‘tapes’ of our conversations.” Well, are there any “tapes”? Does President Trump record conversations in the White House? Let’s ask the press secretary about all this:

Huh. You’d think the answer would be a simple no, but I guess not. Perhaps we’ll find out for sure when Congress subpoenas the recordings and Trump has to tell a federal judge whether they exist.

But if they do exist, I have some advice: just destroy them now. I never understood why Nixon kept those tapes around for so long. He should have just burned them and then claimed that they were destroyed in accord with standard record retention policy. Or something.

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PLEASE—BEFORE YOU CLICK AWAY!

“Lying.” “Disgusting.” “Scum.” “Slime.” “Corrupt.” “Enemy of the people.” Donald Trump has always made clear what he thinks of journalists. And it’s plain now that his administration intends to do everything it can to stop journalists from reporting things it doesn’t like—which is most things that are true.

We’ll say it loud and clear: At Mother Jones, no one gets to tell us what to publish or not publish, because no one owns our fiercely independent newsroom. But that also means we need to directly raise the resources it takes to keep our journalism alive. There’s only one way for that to happen, and it’s readers like you stepping up. Please do your part and help us reach our $150,000 membership goal by May 31.

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